Why not do a Friday Re-release!?! Let's take a break from the horrors IRL and talk about The Mary Celeste and the MV Joyita - two ships found drifting with no people... where did the people go?? Bonus bonus - you shoud watch the movie 'Ghost Ship' from 2002 Bonus bonus bonus - Gabriel Byrne played Professor Bhaer in 1994's "Little Women"????
Why not do a Friday Re-release!?! Let's take a break from the horrors IRL and talk about The Mary Celeste and the MV Joyita - two ships found drifting with no people... where did the people go??
Bonus bonus - you shoud watch the movie 'Ghost Ship' from 2002
Bonus bonus bonus - Gabriel Byrne played Professor Bhaer in 1994's "Little Women"????
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Welcome to Doom to Fail. I'm fars joined here by Taylor
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA096. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not.
>> Farz: What your country can do for you. Recording again on Wednesday. Hi, Taylor.
>> Taylor: Hi. Fire.
>> Farz: You look so different.
>> Taylor: Do I think I look a little flushed? Keep going. I have such bad allergies right now. Like I told you this before, my allergies are insane. So I'm. I might be a little flushed. I feel like I can't find my nose.
>> Farz: Are you a little drunk?
>> Taylor: I had one glass of port. I'm drinking port. Which I think is also, also important for my story. But you start, you start us off. You, you go.
>> Farz: Welcome to Doom to Fail. I'm fars joined here by Taylor. We are going to be covering a history story here that is going to be super exciting, super fun, super interesting, super scary, super haunted, super October and super Taylor vibes for me.
Taylor: I have four spooky stories to tell you in October
>> Taylor: Yeah, so it's October. So I have, we have. Oh wait, do I have. Wait, I don't know. Whatever I'm doing. I have four spooky stories to tell you in October. This is the first one. So number one, this is the first one. So as I said before, my drink is an empty decanter of whiskey and then you turn around and you look at a mirror and then you see in the mirror and it's full. Right.
>> Farz: Super abstract. Yep.
>> Taylor: Yes. And I do know what I'm doing because I made sure you did some homework and I also, because I also want to recommend a movie for each of my four scary stories. So for this one I asked you to see the movie and you were like, duh, I've seen that movie before, which of course you have. And we're gonna talk about something that we both love and we're gonna talk about ghost ships. Yeah, don't you love ghost ships? I love ghost ships so much. I even talked like Miles, my 6 year old son about ghost ships. He's like, we like love talking about ghost ships. They're so, so fun. So I have three things to three acts decided to do. The Mary Celeste, which is the most famous of the ghost ships, the MV Hoita, which is another ghost ship. And then let's just talk about the movie Ghost Ship and how much we like it.
>> Farz: Yes, there is a movie I literally just watched, Taylor, like maybe two weeks ago called Blood Vessel. But vessel is V E S S E L and it's a N*** ship that is boarded by people who are like soldiers on the allied side who sunk and then they get on it. And it's totally abandoned. It is awesome. It is so fun. It is so fun. And long story short, it's like the meter, the story, the demeter is basically that, except, oh, it's so good.
>> Taylor: I think I've seen it. Oh, my God. I'll definitely watch it again. I feel like I watched it in our, like, scary movie thing, but. Oh, my God, yes. I love ghost ships. I love ghost ship movies. A ghost ship is essentially. It's like the ghost town of the sea. It's an empty ship that's just floating and there's still stuff on it. There might be clues, but you don't know what happened. And there are no people. Like, that's. That's what it is. It's also hasn't sunk. So there's like, thousands and thousands of ships who probably had, like, weird stuff happened and were abandoned, but it sunk. So we don't know anything about them. We assume that it sunk with people on it, but we don't know. But in these cases, we know that it didn't sink, but there are no people on them.
>> Farz: You know, can we talk about why they're creepy? I'll tell you my story. I think it's creepy because ships are creepy. F******. Anyways, if you think about it, like, half of what you're on is underwater. If you go under there, like, everything above you is water, potentially. It's just the bowels. And, like, you can't run away from things quickly because, like, there's always, like, barricades between you. It's just scary. The whole thing is just scary.
>> Taylor: And also, like, any thing can happen when you're out at sea, you know, like, there's nowhere to go. You can't, like, run away like a haunted house. You can leave Taylor.
>> Farz: I don't even like going to the stairwell of a large apartment building, because even that's freaking me. It's like. It's like in this, like, weird area that nobody should see, you know, that's definitely fair.
>> Taylor: I used to, when I worked at that hedge fund that I was talking about last episode, worked on the 37th floor of a big building. And when you were in the bathroom or when you were in the stairwell, it sounded like you were on a ship because. Because the building moved as it's supposed to for, like, stability. But you could, like, hear it. It would go like. It was very scary. I did not. I did not like it. So I think we talked about, like, how scary the sea is a couple times. Like, we talked about it Like, a couple big ships that happens on my episodes. Like, some Acadian refugees never made it to Louisiana. They just don't know what happened to them. I'm sure there's boats of, like, Spanish friars that never made to the New World. So, like, there's always, like, can happen. Anything can happen. Once you're out there, there's, like, nothing. There's stars. There's like, your compass, but, like, really crazy. And also, like, how we never found that, like, Malaysian flight that just disappeared a few years ago. Like, that's how big the ocean is. The ocean is terrifyingly huge. And you can get lost. They're really, really easy. So these are some. These are some of my.
There are many famous ghost ships. There might be explanations for them
Two of my favorite ghost ships. There are many ghost ships. There might be explanations for them, and I want to hear what you think that they might be. Have you heard of the MV Hoita?
>> Farz: I have not.
>> Taylor: Cool. So at least I'll tell you one you haven't heard about. But let's start with the Mary Celeste.
>> Farz: So the most famous ghost ship of all ghost ships.
>> Taylor: The most famous ghost ship, the Mary Celeste, actually started out as a Canadian ship called the Amazon. It was built in 1861. So it was built in Canada. And she was a brigantine, which means she had two masts, and she was built to be a cargo ship. She was 100ft across and 25ft wide at the widest point. She was owned by a group of people because we talked about that before, that, like, it's a great way to invest before the stock market before, like, all these things. Like, you can, like, buy a boat, like, be a part of, like, you know, it will essentially bring cargo, like, back and forth and all the things. So the first captain of the Amazon was a man named Robert McKellen. He was the first to sail. And on his first ship, wait, his first voyage, he died quickly. A few weeks into it, he died of, like, a mysterious illness. So the first captain died kind of right away. Another captain named John Parker took over on his first way exhibition out of the Americas. He hit a bunch of fishing equipment in Maine. And the ship was damaged and to get it fixed before he could go any further. Then when he got to Europe, he hit a boat in the English Channel and that that boat sunk. So, like, it didn't so far, not great.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: But there was a few years of, like, everything fine. Like, the boat was going, like, from the West Indies up to, like, Nova Scotia, Canada, back to England and, like, doing this big circle through, like, Europe and The Atlantic and everything was okay. In October 1867, the Amazon was wrecked on an island in Canada and left unclaimed. So it was officially called, like, derelict. So what you could do then is just, like, leave your boat if it got wrecked on the shore, because I guess, what are you going to do? You can't move it.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: And so then it goes to. Then can, like, buy it to salvage it, or they can, like, buy it and try to fix it, but, like, you don't own it anymore. You kind of just leave it. So from this story and other stories, like, the shores are just full of boats, you know, like the. The Bounty was just, like, left on the shore to, like, fall apart into the ocean, you know, so it's kind of like leave boats at the end when they're done. But the Amazon ended up being bought by a man named Alexander McBean, who sold it to a Richard Haynes of the US who spent $20,000 in today's money to fix it up. So Richard Haynes brought it to the US, Registered it in New York, and renamed it the Mary Celeste. So I don't know why, but it was called Amazon first, and now it's the Mary Celeste. He lost it to creditors, and it was bought by another group who did more upgrades. And one of the people who was part of this new group, who was the owner, was Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, and he's the one who we're going to talk about. Okay, so Captain Briggs is from a seafaring family. He's super religious, which is, like, something that people kind of harp on later. Very religious. He married his cousin, as you do. Her name was Sarah, and they had two children. You know, why not?
>> Farz: Those kids are not doing great. But, yeah, you look like you're on the way. You're drinking out of a. You're drinking out, like, a martini. What is a Manhattan glass?
>> Taylor: No, it has. It has grapes engraved in it. I think it's just, like, a fancy wine glass. I bought it at a thrift store. I bought, like, six of them.
>> Farz: You would fit in on the ghost ship, like, very well.
>> Taylor: Taylor, the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Thank you. Do you watch 1899?
>> Farz: No.
>> Taylor: On Netflix. It's one season, but it's, like, about a boat and, like, weird stuff is happening on it. It's like, not a ghost ship. I don't know what's going on, but it's in a. Obviously set in 1899, but it's. Everyone's just, like, dressed so cool and Amazing. And like it looks, it's awesome. But thank you. So you're welcome.
Captain Briggs and his wife Sarah sail on Mary Celeste in 1872
Now it's 18. Now it's 1872 and Captain Briggs is the captain of the Mary Celeste. This year has been, there's been bad weather all year long. It's like not been a good year for weather incidentally and unrelated. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1872.
>> Farz: Whoa.
>> Taylor: Like a little like lava flow eruption. But it's time to take the Marie Celeste on her first official trip. She's going to go from the US to Genoa, Italy, which is like in the top left corner of Italy. So they have to go like through and into the Mediterranean Sea and up to Italy. Captain Briggs. Captain Briggs and his wife Sarah and their two year old daughter Sophia are the ones who are on, on like the civilians on this ship. So incidentally also Sophia actually turns two right before the voyage and her birthday is on Halloween.
>> Farz: Oh wait, so is the dad, I mean mom second cousins with her own daughter?
>> Taylor: God, I don't know. It's a good question. It gets confusing to me when it like it's like second cousin once removed and like blah blah, blah. But yeah, no, it's not great.
>> Farz: If I marry my sister, do we have our own siblings as our children?
>> Taylor: You have your own nieces and nephews as your children.
>> Farz: That's right. That's what it would be.
>> Taylor: Boris doesn't have a sister. Everyone who's worried about that question, they do leave their son behind. He's seven. They leave him behind to be in school. So there are descendants of the Briggs's alive because of the son that lived. There's also on the crew, there's first mate Albert Richardson. He is married to a niece of this man named Winchester who is one of the owners of the boat and he's sailed with Briggs before. So like they're friends. The second mate is a dude named Andrew Gillig, also you know, a very accomplished sailor. The steward is Edward Head, he's newly married, he is also knows what he's doing. There's four general seamen from Germany and everyone is for the most part like very nice. Sarah Briggs wrote a letter to her mother and called them, you know, quite capable, you know, a good crew. Like no, nothing to worry about. No one was worried.
The cargo on the Mary Celeste is 1,701 barrels of alcohol
So it is on October 20, 1872, Briggs gets to New York, he lives in Massachusetts, gets to New York to start packing and getting ready for this voyage. So it was about a week of prep. The cargo on the Mary Celeste is 1,701 barrels of alcohol. And it's not fun. Alcohol. Oh, no, it's not fun. It's. It's ethanol. So it's like, for fuel, for disinfectant. If you drink it, you die or you go blind. So it's not fun.
>> Farz: It's just fun.
>> Taylor: A thousand barrels.
>> Farz: No, dude, it's probably fun for, like, the six minutes before you go blind.
>> Taylor: Sure. This is a really fun six minutes, Then you're blind.
>> Farz: Yes.
>> Taylor: Not great. So. Yeah. So on November 5th, they tried to set sail, but the weather wasn't great. So they made it to Staten island and then waited two days, and they finally departed on November 7th. The letters that Briggs wrote to his family were like, again, everything looks good. Make sure the boy studies. Like, we're going to be home soon. No big deal. We're just on this trip. So that is November 7th.
>> Farz: Wait, when are they set sail?
>> Taylor: Spoiler. November 7th.
>> Farz: They said still on November 7th. Okay, they got it.
>> Taylor: And they never make it. They don't make it to. They're trying to get to Genoa. They never make it to Genoa on December 4. So six, five. Six weeks later, Captain David Morehouse of the ship the Degratia spotted a ship doing some weird things in the ocean. The sails were up, but the rigging was odd. And the rigging is like, the ropes and all the stuff. Like, it wasn't. Some of the sails were up, but not all of them. Like, it looked weird. So he was like, this ship seems to be in distress. The DEI Gratia left New York eight days after the Mary Celeste and should have been on the same path as them, but they. Or I guess maybe they weren't even supposed to be in Genoa yet. They didn't really know yet, but the Degraffia is on the same path as them and should have gotten there, like, eight days after them if it would have been, like, correct. But instead, they see this boat kind of floating aimlessly in the water. So Captain Morehouse has his first and second mate go check, and they get closer to the. This, like, random boat on the middle out in the middle of the sea, which is so bizarre they even found it. You know, like, because the sea is so huge. And like, I was reading. I read Moby D*** a couple years ago, and, like, in Moby D***, you would have, like, letters. You would write a letter to someone to say, like, I'm having a great time at sea. I'm fine, and give it to another ship if you happened to see another ship. You know what I mean? Like, you don't necessarily. Ever see another ship? The ocean's so huge. So the first and second mate go up there. They are like calling out. They're like doing signals like, hey, anybody there? What's going on? There's no one on the deck. They get on the boat, they see that it's the Mary Celeste. And like, this is weird because they should be eight days ahead of us. You know, they're like, what's going on? They get on the boat and there's nobody on the entire boat. It's a ghost ship.
>> Farz: They get on the boat. God, so creepy.
>> Taylor: So it's like, I hope it's a little foggy, creaky, weird. They get on the boat, there's nobody there. They're calling around. Anybody here? Nobody.
>> Farz: Taylor. Like, picture. It isn't just like, you just are on the boat, on the deck and you're calling to people. You're going towards the boat on your ship and you're like, hello, matey. Like, you know, you're doing like, Captain, like there's something weird happening. Like, you know, it's so other worldly.
>> Taylor: It's so creepy. Totally.
There was food and water on the Mary Celeste that would have kept people fed
So here are the facts, here's what we know. There was nobody on board. No humans on board.
>> Farz: No bodies.
>> Taylor: They only had no bodies. Exactly. Nobodies. No live people. No people. There was one lifeboat that the Mary Celeste had, it was missing. So lifeboat is gone. Some, some of the papers are missing as well as the navigational equipment. So whatever they would have used, like we talked about those, like things to like see the stars or whatever that was missing. There was food and water on the Mary Celeste that would have kept people fed for another six months. So there's plenty of food. There was plenty of water. There are three hatches on the Mary Celeste. There was a big one in the middle and then two on the ends. The one in the middle was closed, but the two on the end were open like that. Go into the cargo hold. In the cargo hold where those like 1700 barrels were, there was three and a half feet of water. So like not enough to sink it, but there was water in there. And so they. That could have been like worrying if you were, you know, on the boat. One of the pumps was broken. So there were like two pumps, one on each side that were supposed to pump out water from the cargo hold that there was water in there. One of them was broken and taken apart. Like they had probably tried to fix it. So a speculation is that maybe it was clogged from coal because they had been like a Coal ship in the past. So maybe it was clogged from something, but it looked like they had tried to try to fix it. There is something on the deck that there was a makeshift thing to measure water in the cargo hold, which I imagine is just like a stick, you know, and you like put it in there and see how deep the water goes. So they're trying to measure how deep the water was in the cargo hold. The last log and the ship's log that was left there was from November 25th at 8am, which was nine days ago. And it said nothing unusual, but it did say that they thought that they saw land and they would have potentially passed some islands on the way there. So that's what the last log said. It said nothing unusual, nothing weird. Things are a little bit messy, but nothing showing a struggle like just like normal, just like maybe things knocked over from the thing. And it was about 400 miles off course, like so it wasn't where it was supposed to be. The ethanol barrels were, were still there, but nine of them were empty. The nine empty barrels were made of red oak, but the rest of them were made of white oak. So the red oak barrels were more likely to leak just offline.
>> Farz: So maybe they got high.
>> Taylor: Maybe. Yeah, that's a speculation.
Under maritime salvage law, if you save a ship, you're entitled to compensation
So Morehouse divides his crew in half, gives half the crew to the Mary Celeste and half to his boat, the Degratia, and they go to Gibraltar. Do you know what Gibraltar is?
>> Farz: It's the southern Horn of Africa.
>> Taylor: Spain. It's actually the, the north of Spain. It's like almost hits Africa. It's like that gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. And then it's a very bottom of Spain. It's like 2 miles area and it is owned by England even today.
>> Farz: Weird.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Pass through that together. Yeah. God.
>> Farz: The British rules everything up.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So they bring it, they tow the Mary Celeste into Gibraltar and under maritime salvage law they are able to go to trial to see if they get what is on that. So maritime salvage law is a real law. That's still a law. There's a council about it in 1989, essentially. This is the quote about it from the law. The the vessel must be in peril, either immediate or forthcoming. The salver must be acting voluntarily or under no pre existing contract. And the salver must be successful in their efforts, though payment for partial success may be granted if the environment is protected. So essentially if you find a ship who is in distress and you have no prior contact with them, you're not like there to save them. It Happens by accident and you save them, you're entitled to some of what's on that ship.
>> Farz: Okay.
>> Taylor: Based on the law of the seas. The law of the seas. That's, that's so the. After the hearings, they thought there was like some foul play and that alcohol might have been involved. That was like what they had said. And I'm sure there was like regular alcohol on the boat. I'm sure there was like wine and not just like ethanol, you know? Yeah. So some of the rumors from the trial, they said that there was a, a bloody sword. The captain's sword was bloody, but when they like did tests on it, it was just rusty. Like it wasn't, it wasn't bloody, but it was found under his bed. So he didn't grab his sword when he left. For whatever reason. It was like still in his room. A vial of sewing oil was upright on like a sewing machine, which is like, imagine like a little bottle on a table. But they're saying that like that meant it couldn't have been that crazy in the water. Like couldn't have been super rough seas if stuff like wasn't. Everything wasn't falling over.
>> Farz: Right.
>> Taylor: There were some cuts in the bow that looked like ax cuts. And they were saying that they ended up being like, not man made. But then I was thinking, do you remember that movie with like the sharks where people come open Water two, Not Open Water one, Open Water two.
>> Farz: Never saw it.
>> Taylor: So where like these people are on this like yacht in the middle of like the ocean and they like jump out of the boat to like play in the water, but they forget to put the ladder down so they can't get back on the boat because like of the hull being slippery. So I was like, maybe they were trying to like ax and like climb up back up on the hull once they got off of it. But then they said that those are man made. So maybe not that. The court ultimately gave the boat back to the investors. It went to Genoa, completed its mission, and arrived back in New York on September 19, 1873, a little under a year later from when I left.
There are a lot of rumors about what happened to the Marie Celeste
So what happened? There's a lot of rumors and a lot of things that like we think could have happened. And a lot of the rumors are because of all these stories that people made up about it. There's like too many stories maybe about what could have happened to it, you know, and it's too fun of a story. There were. Some of the rumors were specifically because in 1893, for some reason, like many years later, the LA Times wrote an article about it, and they're the ones who first said the fun stuff, like the food was on the table, the fires were still warm. You know those rumors.
>> Farz: Yeah. Where they were like, they're not true.
>> Taylor: They're not. Those aren't true. I know, but it's so much more fun if you get there and, like, the food is, like, on the table and it's not rotten, you know, or like, there's coffee in the coffee pot and it's still warm. Like, where did everybody go? They just disappeared this instant. Like, it wasn't this instant that disappeared. Like they disappeared, but not that instant. Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame wrote a story. Before he wrote Sherlock Holmes, he wrote a story about this. He called it J. Habakkuk Jephson's Statement, which was like a song, doesn't it? It was a story about a man who had been on the boat. And he said that there. That before he left, a slave, an enslaved woman, gave him this, like, rock from Africa and said, like, bring this back to Africa for me. And then on the. On the way there, they got like, ambushed by, like, African pirates. And then he had this rock and they brought him back to their village and like, all this, like, mystical stuff happened. Then they let him go home and write something down. Like, obviously that didn't happen. That doesn't make any sense. But people were like, thinking that. And like, they had said, like, maybe we should investigate this. And Arthur Conan Doyle was like, don't do that. That's stupid.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: He was like, I just heard a story. Like, it's, it's. It's interesting, but, like, that's not what happened. I also listened to. There's a fun podcast that I listened to that was like a radio play. It was called Old Time Radio. And so it was like the mystery of the. Of the Marie Celeste. It's Mary, not Marie, but Arthur Conan Doyle called it Marie in his. His story. But in that it was like an old time radio show. But I think they just made it now. But whatever. It was like a thing where maybe there was a stowaway who was a criminal, you know, and he killed everybody because they figured out that he was like the criminal. It's like, maybe that happened, which is fun.
>> Farz: It's like your story in Germany with the. What's it called? The Hinter Hinton Sleeping.
>> Taylor: Hinterkaifeck.
>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like that.
>> Taylor: Yeah, you're just like, never gonna know what really happened.
>> Farz: No, there's a lot of people who, like, have ideas. I'm scared now.
>> Taylor: Yeah, some ideas, like, maybe it was a mutiny, you know, maybe like, the crew was mad at the captain, Briggs, for some reason and killed him. And then they left, like, threw his body over. Boat overboard. Left in lifeboat. Thought they were close to land, thought they could escape or whatever. Like, they never got anywhere because no one's ever seen them again. You know, maybe Morehouse and Briggs were in cahoots. People thought that maybe, like, Morehouse of the Degratia knew that this was going to happen, and then they, like, stole a bunch of stuff and then try to get the insurance money. But that doesn't really make sense because, like, the cargo was still there, you know, like.
>> Farz: Yeah, what sort of.
>> Taylor: And. And Briggs never reappeared. He didn't, like, appear somewhere being like, great, and then they split the money. Could have been pirates. But also, again, stuff was still there, you know, like, they left stuff. It wasn't like it had been robbed or ransacked. There is a pretty good theory that it might have been an explosion. So some of the ethanol may have been leaking, and it could have sc. It could have made them scared enough to. To abandon the ship. And the problem with that is there's no soot and there's no burning anywhere like, in the cargo hold. But in 2005, a woman named Andrea Sella of the University College of London did an experiment, and there's a chance that, like, those nine barrels that were leaking potentially could have exploded and done, like, a flash explosion and then gone out really fast. So it could have been, like, technically really scary. And then they could have thought that the rest of the boat was going to explode. So they left. But it. But it wouldn't have left any soot or anything.
>> Farz: Yeah. Was a lifeboat reaction?
>> Taylor: Yes. The one lifeboat was gone.
>> Farz: There's only one.
>> Taylor: So it's. Yes, so it sounds. There's only like, 10 people on board, but it sounds like they left. So. But that's weird because if you're a ship captain, like I am, you know that you do not leave a boat if it's still able to float. You're much safer in the boat than you are in the lifeboat, because lifeboats are small there. You can't have a lot of stuff.
The movie is called Ghost Ship and we don't know what happened
You're safer being in your ship. Like a car in the snow. You know, if your car gets stuck in the snow, don't leave your car because you're much safer there than you are just, like, out in the open. Out in the open. So they may have Seen land and thought they were close enough and tried to like, get to that land with their. On the lifeboat because they thought the boat was going to explode. That seems like the only reason that they would have left is if they thought that it was like a big explosion was imminent, you know, man.
>> Farz: Or it's haunted.
>> Taylor: Or it's haunted. Of course. It's also the answer. I mean, their ghosts are definitely still on it somewhere.
>> Farz: Oh, God, the lights are. It is so dark here and I'm so scared right now.
>> Taylor: It is getting. It's getting a little bit darker for you.
>> Farz: I know. This is freaking me the out. I'm only talking about this, okay?
>> Taylor: No, I mean, no, there's 100%. It's still sailing as a ghost ship out in the world, but like a literal ghost ship because we don't know what happened and we never found them. And so other, like, ideas are like maybe a giant squid, which would be hilarious, but the boat's not damaged. Maybe a water spout, which is like a water tornado. But we'll never know what really happened. But whatever happened, it scared them enough to leave, which is not something that they would do.
>> Farz: Yeah, they're trying to steal.
>> Taylor: You know what I mean?
>> Farz: Oh, oh, them. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I get it.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Like, the people on the boat, they wouldn't have just left casually because they know not to leave a boat. They never would have left if they didn't think they were in, like, immediate danger if they would have stayed on the boat. So they. I'm guessing that they thought it was going to explode and then just like got lost on their life raft. Because. Wait, write this down. They were about 400 miles off course because the navigational equipment was a little bit broken. So like, even they were a little bit off where they thought that they were. So they might have thought that they were by other islands when they weren't. So they might have thought that they could be a little bit safer. It was like. It wasn't perfect. Like, the. The whole thing was like a little bit weird from the beginning.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's not great.
>> Taylor: You're frowning so hard. Are you gonna have nightmares? Go nightmares tonight.
>> Farz: Dude, it's freaky. It's like. It's like. It's like these things called water spouts. Like, what the is that? Like, look at like, where did this come from? Who created these?
>> Taylor: No, I know, but like. And I mean even, like the weather was bad and even like in waves. I mean, like, I can't even imagine being like 100 foot ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you can see nothing for months. You know, it's terrifying.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah. So just so everybody is aware, like, again, reiterating, the movie is called Ghost Ship.
>> Taylor: No, no, we're not there yet.
Ghost Ship is based on the Mary Celeste from 1935
>> Farz: Okay. All right, sorry.
>> Taylor: We're still talking about. About the Mary Celeste. We're talking about Ghost.
>> Farz: Well, no, I'm talking about the movie because the movie was based on the Mary Celeste.
>> Taylor: What movie?
>> Farz: Ghost Ship.
>> Taylor: I know we're talking about the movie ghost yet from 22,000. Just wait.
>> Farz: Okay, sorry.
>> Taylor: We're talking about that. Okay. There actually is a Mary Celeste movie with Bela Lugosi from 1935 that has him as, like, a. A stowaway who, like, killed everyone. Which I did not watch, but I definitely want to. I'm sure it's fun. So we have all these rumors. We have this myth, like the myth of, you know, dinner on the table. The myth of whatever. Whatever. But really, we'll never know what happened to these people. The Mary Celeste kept sailing, but she also lost a lot of money. Like, she was never successful, and people didn't want to be on it. Like, can you imagine being the crew that had to sail it back to America?
>> Farz: F*** no. It's a literally the theme of Dementor. It's literally the theme from Dementor. Like, it is so f****** creepy. This room is so dark.
>> Taylor: Yeah. No. You're so scared. Yes.
>> Farz: I can still hear you bringing lights, but yeah.
>> Taylor: So exactly. So it's terrifying. I can't imagine anyone being on it. It makes absolutely no sense. It's really, really scary. And in 1879, there was another captain who died early as well. He died young, too. And in 1884, there was another captain and Captain Parker. And he filled the Mary Celeste with, like, worthless cargo and run it aground to collect the insurance money.
>> Farz: Good.
>> Taylor: So he did get rid of the thing. People knew. People knew what he had done immediately. Like, no one bought it, that it was like. It was like an accident. So he actually. He didn't get convicted. He didn't go to jail. He was let go, but he died three months later just, like, as, like a drunk on the beach. It got really. Your house. Okay. It got so much darker than before. And then another person in the conspiracy. Oh, you're all. Your lights go out.
>> Farz: Dude, this is scary topic. Keep going.
>> Taylor: Are you okay? Are you gonna be okay? I feel like you're not gonna be okay.
>> Farz: Luna's acting up. I don't know. There's a lot of weird s*** going on no prefers.
>> Taylor: Okay, so there are three people involved in the conspiracy. This guy, Captain Parker, died three months later in poverty. Another one died by suicide. Another one went mad. So, like, they went. They went nuts. The Mary Celeste had a couple more voyages. She ended up running aground in Haiti. And she's somewhere in Haiti. She just crashed against the beach and slowly disappeared back into the ocean. And she's gone.
>> Farz: Good.
>> Taylor: I wouldn't like. I would like. Oh, just this reminded me in New York, there's like a boat that you can like. It's like, also a bar. So you're like, kind of like going in the boat and like, that's fun. I feel like I would go to the Mary Celeste if it was like a bar.
>> Farz: Weren't we supposed to go on the Queen Anne?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: In Long beach we were supposed to do that. Because they do. They do Halloweens there.
Mary Celeste is one of the most famous ghost ships
They do, like, haunted. God, it's so f******. I would never do that now. I'm so much wiser.
>> Taylor: That sounds so scary. I would totally go, but I'd be really scared the whole time. I, like, I would freak out the whole entire time. So that's the Mary Celeste, the most famous of the ghost ships.
The Hoita was a smaller boat in the South Pacific in 1955
Before we talk about the movie Ghost Ship, let's talk about one more. This one's from 1955, so more recent. And it also has some fun true crime things that happen near and around it. Okay, so this one is the MV Hoyita. It is the MV stands for merchant vessel. And hoita is spelled J O Y I T A. It means little jewel in Spanish. So the Hoita was a smaller boat in the South Pacific in 1955. 25 people were on board and they were never found. They found the boat, but it was empty. There were no people on it.
>> Farz: The thing is sinking.
>> Taylor: So here, let me. Hold on, I'm gonna get there. Don't look at it yet.
>> Farz: Sorry.
>> Taylor: Okay. The Hoita was built in 1931 as a yacht in Los Angeles. It was built for movie director Roland West. Roland west was married to a woman named Jewel Carmen. Which is my. Why he named it Hoita. That means little jewel. He bought it for his wife. She would take it back and forth to Mexico, you know, go on cruises or whatever they were. They were like 1930s rich Hollywood, which is super fun. The Hoito is 69ft long and 17ft across on the widest. So smaller than the Mary Celeste. Like a. Like a yacht. You might remember Roland west for having an affair with Thelma Todd. I don't know if you Heard of her, but she was an actress during the, like, the transition between silent films and talkies. She. There is a great podcast called you must remember this I don't know by Karina Longworth. It's about, like, old Hollywood. And she does a whole series on dead blondes and Thalmitata's episod episode two. So dead blondes. Thelma Todd. But Thelma Todd was married. Super fun. Thelma Todd was married to a actor named Pat DiCiccio. Pat Cicicio later married Gloria Vanderbilt when she was 17. He was awful. He was. He was a monster. But Gloria Vanderbilt later married a man named Wyatt Cooper. And that's Anderson Cooper's dad.
>> Farz: Whoa.
>> Taylor: I don't know. I thought that was fun. Small world, so. Yeah, exactly. So Mary, Thelma Todd was an actress, and she also owned. With. With Roland West. They owned a little cafe in the Pacific Palisades. So it was like, near the beach. It was a little cafe. She was like a famous actress, but had this little restaurant. She lived above it. And Roland west had an apartment that, like, attached to hers. It had, like, a door between their bedrooms. Like, they were obviously together. And his wife lived about a block away. And she was fine. It was like cahoots. Everyone knew that. Everyone knew that was happening. So on December 16, 1935 in the morning, a maid found in the garage, Thelma Todd's dead body. She was 29 years old. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of the wife of Jewel, Carmen. And she was in this garage in this beautiful car, wearing a beautiful gown, and had died somehow. And so it's. It's a forever mystery. They think that Roland west may have done it. Maybe Jewel did it. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe she's trying to warm up. Maybe she was drunk and tired. She'd just been at a party in Hollywood and back home. But she was very young, only 29 when she died there. So that's the true crime part. That's a fun story. It's gonna be a mystery forever. Yeah. So. But she. But Thelma Tata definitely been on the hoita a bunch because her boyfriend owned it. You know, so she had been on this boat. So in 1941, in October 1941, they sold the boat to the US government and sent it to Pearl Harbor. So this is two months before I'm gonna do this thing. Ready? December 7th, 1941. A day that will live in infamy.
The Hoita was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1945
Can you do better than that? Can we do it?
>> Farz: You December.
>> Taylor: Did I crush that SDR?
>> Farz: December, what is it?
>> Taylor: 1St 7th.
>> Farz: December 7th, 1945. A day that will live in infamous 1941. I think you did better than I did.
>> Taylor: Whatever. So we know exactly what the HO was doing at Pearl harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese. But it was there for sure. So it was in Hawaii during World War II. It spent World War II patrolling Hawaii. It was a. A patrol ship around the big Island. In 1948, she was sold to a private firm who added refrigeration equipment, two more engines, and filled the hall with cork. So it would be really f****** hard to sink the ship because it was like up by cork, like it was really buoyant.
>> Farz: You mean the cargo was cork?
>> Taylor: No, they filled the hull with cork. Like just like added an extra layer of cork like around the bottom.
>> Farz: Oh, wow. Yeah, that's inside.
>> Taylor: Super buoyant. I totally agree. I'm gonna. Yes, agreed.
>> Farz: If I ever buy a ship, I'm filling it with cork. It's not ever occurred to me.
>> Taylor: Just save all your wine corks and just like hot glue them around the outside of it. I can totally do that. So in 1955, it was owned by a woman named Dr. Catherine Luamala, who was a Hawaiian anthropologist. And she wrote a book, just FYI named Voices of the Wind, which was used as the model for Disney's Tiki Room. And that started the 50s tiki craze of like people, whatever. So the woman who owned the boat is. The woman invented tiki as like a thing. So the boat was in Samoa. She had given it to a friend to use in, in Samoa. And now it's 1955. The boat's owned by Dr. Luamala, but it's in Samoa and it's about to do a run from Samoa to the Tokelau Islands, 270 miles away. So it's about to do like a pretty general run. 270 miles. It should take two days for it to go. The engine, one of the engines doesn't work. It's a two engine boat. One of them doesn't work. They delay a day and then they decide it. We're going with just one engine. So they get ready to go. The cargo on the hoita is empty barrels. So it's like extra buoyant, you know, it's like covered in cork. There's barrels, empty barrels as the thing and also some medical supplies. So there's some other things that are like regular shipping things on board. There are 16 crew members and nine passengers, including a surgeon who's on his Way to the Tokelau Islands to do an amputation for someone who needs a doctor. And there's two children, just FYI, one's three, one 11. It should have taken two days, but it never arrived. They do air searches all over the area to try to find it, and they can't find it. So it leaves October 3rd. On November 10th, the captain of the ship Tuvalau. So about like a month and a half later, a captain named Gerald Douglas found the Hoita. It was listed to the port side, to the left. That's what you're looking in the picture. It was. So it was, like, kind of tipped over, but it wasn't gonna sink. There was no way it was going to actually sink to the bottom because all of the empty barrels and all the cork, right, like, it was. It wasn't going to. So the facts are these. When they got on the boat, the radio, there were no people. Again, no bodies, no people. The radio was tuned to the distress signal. So they were, like, maybe trying to do a distressing distress signal. When they left, there were barnacles on the side, on the left side that showed it was listed for a while. So it was, like, tipped over for a while. The bridge had been smashed, so some of the things on the top had been smashed. There was an awning of canvas on the deck that had been, like, makeshift. So they may have been. People may have been trying to, like, shield themselves from the sun by, like, putting, like, a sheet over the deck.
>> Farz: Right.
>> Taylor: At some point, some of the cargo was missing. Not a lot, but some of it was missing. It had four lifeboats. All four lifeboats were missing, and those would have just fit. All 25 people would have fit in those four lifeboats. There had been a pump rigged in the engine room to try to, like, get out water, but it. It wasn't working. The clocks had stopped at 10:25, and. Which is actually, I feel like the first good. It was the first good argument I've ever seen for using, like, military time, because they didn't know if it was 10:25 at night or in the morning. But because it was 10:25, obviously, like a regular clock. But also all the light switches were on, so that makes them think it was 10 at night when all the power went out. That makes sense. The navigation stuff was missing. And on the deck, there was the doctor's bag and bloody bandages were on the deck. There was a leak in the cargo hold that might have been hard to find because maybe it happened at night and it was Hard to get to. They think a pipe leaked.
So one of the theories is that the captain died and everyone panicked
So they wouldn't have really known what had happened. When they were, like, on the deck, they would have known that, like, maybe the deck was filling the cargo hold filling with water, but they wouldn't have known why. But again, the boat was never going.
>> Farz: To think it was still listing.
>> Taylor: So it was like. It was still listing. It was like, potentially, like, tipping over pretty quickly. But they weren't. But it wasn't going to sink. They were still going to. They still could have been on it. So again, the captain would never have left the ship is what, like, his friends say, what his, like, employers say, what everyone says, like, the captain wouldn't have left. He knows better. So one of the theories is that the captain died and everyone else panicked because someone was hurt because the doctor's bag was left out and there are bloody bandages. So how did they get hurt? Something happened and the captain died and everybody else freaked out. Did, like, he get in a fight with one of the more experienced sailors? And then they both died and it was just left. People who didn't know what to do and they left in the lifeboats. We don't know.
>> Farz: It's the meter, dude. It's the meter. It's like a vampire that's on the ship and nobody knows it's there. Just keeps taking them out one by one and then. And then he, like, turns into a rat or something.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Yes.
>> Farz: And just like that, it's the only explanation. It's the only rational explanation.
>> Taylor: Another. Another theory is that maybe the Japanese came in and stole it, but that seems major racist or post World War II. I don't think that really. That could be. Really happened. Eventually the Hoito was sold and scrapped, but she did run around. She did have a couple more runs. They fixed her and she had a couple more runs. She ran aground with passengers. In 1957, she was beached in Fiji. Eventually they wanted to make her into, like, a tea room, like a little restaurant. She was, like, on the beach. Then the government in Fiji was not super interested and they just let it go. And so piece by piece, the Hyta went back into the sea and she's gone.
>> Farz: The owner of the HOIT also, he directed the Monster and Lon Chaney's the Bat, which is about a bat, which is a silent comedy mystery film that is an adaptation of the Circular Staircase, which nothing is telling me that this is a movie about vampires, but it might be about vampires.
>> Taylor: And Lon Chaney is very scary, and.
>> Farz: Lon Chaney is very scary and known for doing great horror schnicks.
>> Taylor: Interesting.
If you were ever on a ship sinking, please leave a note
So here's what. Here's what I learned.
>> Farz: Yes.
>> Taylor: Let me tell you what I learned from this fars. If you were ever on a ship that is sinking or something that is happening, please leave a note. Please cut your finger and write on the ball with blood. We are leaving because we think this is going to explode. Or write, we are leaving because the captain died. We don't know what to do. Like, leave a f****** note. Maybe there's a note in a bottle somewhere in the ocean that we'll find someday someone from the Mary Celeste who's like, here's what happened. But like, please take notes and please let people know what's going on.
>> Farz: Taylor. They probably would have if they weren't abducted by aliens or killed by Demeter.
>> Taylor: Exactly. It's also aliens. It also could be aliens. It could have been a giant squid. Could have been aliens. Maybe it's actually an underwater alien, because those are a thing.
Everybody please watch the movie go ship from 2002. It's so good. The best scene of any is just incredible
>> Farz: Wait, can we talk about the movie? Because now.
>> Taylor: Okay, now we're. This is our third act. The third act is everybody please watch the movie go ship from 2002. It's so good.
>> Farz: So good.
>> Taylor: It has the best.
>> Farz: The best scene of any is just incredible. Incredible.
>> Taylor: So good. I scream every time and I know what's going to happen. It's fantastic.
>> Farz: Where he's dancing with a little girl. Oh, my dude.
>> Taylor: So it stars Julie. I'm gonna. I'm dba stars Juliana Margulies, who was from the Good Wife and also, er. Because it was being 2002. So you would think, er. Who else is in it? Oh, there's Gabriel Byrne. Super handsome as like the handsome captain.
>> Farz: He's okay.
>> Taylor: Torture.
>> Farz: He's. He's not my first choice for what.
>> Taylor: There's also handsome.
>> Farz: I don't think he's like good looking.
>> Taylor: I think he's handsome. There's also Desmond Harrington who ended up being in Dexter. He's like the guy in Dexter. He's the detective who like marries his sister. Not his sister, but Dexter sister or likes her, whatever. He's indexer. Gabriel Burn is very handsome. He's not good looking. And then. No, he's like. He's like mysterious anthem.
>> Farz: He looks like the Crypt Keeper's grandfather.
>> Taylor: I'm gonna list all the people.
>> Farz: There's Isaiah Washington. Also your fame.
>> Taylor: What is. What is he in?
>> Farz: I say watching it. You are.
>> Taylor: Oh, he. That's what I was thinking. He's also. Oh, he's in Grey's Anatomy.
>> Farz: Same difference, Same thing. No, no, I'm confusing the two.
>> Taylor: He didn't. He's in Grey's Anatomy. There's Ron Eldart, who's in like a bunch of stuff. He's in Deep Impact, Black Hawk dawn. This is like this 90s was like really his time. Super awesome. The 2000s. Oh my God. So good. And then there's, I guess this. Only people I know. But it's such. It's so. It's so scary. It's so good. It's like so like this. They find this ship. The ship has been missing since the 60s in the. It's from Italy. It was like a cruise ship. Everyone got murdered by, you know, I think demon.
>> Farz: We don't know. We don't know.
>> Taylor: Spoiler alert. But it's great and it's very scary and it's everything you want a ghost movie to be about. And I hope that there are a ton of ghost ships out in the world still, because how fun would you find one?
>> Farz: So that's the thing. There's. There's levels to this. Like, you have the Hoyita, which is a 65 footer, which is pretty big. Then you have the Mary Celeste, which is a hundred footer, which is like bigger. Because science really. Imagine if you were to come up to a f****** Carnival cruise ship that should have 6,000 people on it. Dude, I would. I'm like, like, just kill yourself. Like, there's nothing worth, like as soon as. Okay, bro, you have to spend the night on this cruise ship. Like, I would rather just drown myself immediately because I know that's what's gonna happen. Just kill yourself right then and there. Like, why even try? Why bother trying to survive?
>> Taylor: It's like if the Titanic didn't sink, it was just like floating around the ocean for the last hundred years.
Taylor: I'm scared of my backyard at night. I literally scared myself talking to you
And then you like, find it and there's like. But there's no one on it. But there's no dead bodies. You're like, but where are the dead bodies? There's no dead bodies. And ghost ship actually, you know, everybody dies. But there are no dead bodies, which is weird. Where do the bodies go?
>> Farz: Dude, it's not weird. It's because the thing has been out there sailing for like 300 years and like it's all decomposed and rotten.
>> Taylor: Years.
>> Farz: Whatever.
>> Taylor: I. I love the idea of being out on the sea and seeing these, like, the mist and they're like these masts and there's this ship that looks like it should be from like, you know, 300 years ago. And it has, like, a Spanish flag and, like, a pirate flag or whatever you get on it. And it's empty except there's, like, bottles of booze that haven't been opened in 300 years. And, like, I, I just. I mean, it's so scary and so amazing. I love everything about it.
>> Farz: And then you have the Flying Dutchman most famous. That is the Johnny Depp ghost ship of ghost ships. Like, that is the flying Ghost. Ah. Dude, Taylor, we have such, like, similar affinity for, like, f****** horror.
>> Taylor: I know. I love.
>> Farz: I literally. I literally scared myself.
>> Taylor: I was gonna say I'm also really, really scared of my backyard at night. So I'm walking onto a ghost show.
>> Farz: Yeah, no, I literally, I scared myself sitting here talking to you because it turned into darkness and was like, oh, my God, there's a ghost ship in my backyard. I don't know.
>> Taylor: I love it so much.
>> Farz: It's my guys, go. Legitimately, I, I, I'm. I hate being one of those people that says, go watch a thing or listen to a thing, because I'm like, my taste is not your taste, so I'm not gonna try and impute my taste on you. But I'm telling you, Ghost Ship is good. It is a good movie, and it's.
>> Taylor: On HBO right now. Yeah. Is it really? Whatever.
>> Farz: Oh, my God, I'm so doing that tonight. I'm gonna rewatch this because. Because Taylor texted me and said, hey, watch Ghost Ship this week. And I was like, I don't need to, because I. I haven't memorized the way I had Jurassic park memorized. Like, I don't need to rewatch it. Yeah, it's one of those. But, like, I. What am I rewatching? Because now Taylor scared me and I'm nervous.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God, it's so good. Yes. Oh, my God. Please, everyone watch it. If you hadn't, it's great. And far as. I'll give you a movie to watch for next week as well, because I have another scary story to tell you next week.
>> Farz: Love it.
>> Taylor: I'm excited about it. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for listening. I have one shout out to my cousin Lindsay, who's the best, but yes, thank you.
>> Farz: I literally just. I just hearted your post. It was awesome. Go ahead.
>> Taylor: Yeah, she saw. She. She saw a stuffed passenger pigeon. She's talking about it and telling someone about it, and they were like, oh, I have one, and they showed one. So that was super fun.
>> Farz: So dope.
>> Taylor: I think you, Lindsay, you're the best.
>> Farz: Yeah, thank you. Lindsay and Taylor, thank you. Because I. This is. This is a fun part of doing this podcast is like, you think of these things. It's like, wow. It's like, I like, yeah.
>> Taylor: I can't wait to hear about the dreams that you have tonight.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's gonna be bad. It's gonna be bad. But you literally just put me on a track.
Everyone, please find us on social media or write to us
Okay, so Blood Vessel and Ghost Ship. Blood Vessel is, like, really fun, but it's, like, stupider than Ghost Ship. But, like, it'll still be fun to listen to both or watch both.
>> Taylor: That's fair.
>> Farz: Thank you, Taylor.
>> Taylor: Thank you, Vars. Everyone, please find us on socialmedefellpod or write to us@gmail.com.
>> Farz: Yeah, write to us. Email us at dunafellpod.com or@gmail.com.
>> Taylor: I'M on IMDb right now, FYI. Also, if you have an opinion on Gabriel Byrne, because I'm looking at pictures of him from a movie from 1981 called Excalibur, and he's very handsome, so I just wanted to bring that up to everyone.
>> Farz: I'm gonna look him up right now. Caliber Excalibur.
>> Taylor: Adrian Gabriel, he's a movie called shipwrecked in 1990. Looks very handsome there.
>> Farz: He looks better, but he's still shipwrecked. He still doesn't live up to my standards.
>> Taylor: Oh, God. He was the dad in hereditary. That's the worst.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. Okay, awesome. Thank you.
>> Farz: Thanks, Taylor. I'm gonna cut it.